The desk
Editorial policy
Sources, corrections, price ranges and independence: the editorial rules every guide on stpetersburger.com is written under.
Three rules govern every guide on this site: verifiable facts, plain uncertainty, and independence from trade.
Sources and uncertainty
A fact that appears in a guide comes from workshop history, museum documentation or the technical literature on a material. When sources disagree about a date or a number, the guide reports the range of views instead of choosing one, and famous unverifiable anecdotes are labeled as anecdotes or left out. The Kshesinskaya egg stories that circulate in some lists, for example, do not appear here as fact, because the documentation does not support them; the guides keep to the eggs and commissions the record supports.
Prices and names
Prices appear only as indicative ranges tied to quality and condition, because exact quotes age badly and teach less. No shop, market stall or dealer is named or praised, and no affiliate relationship exists. Recognition advice is written to help a reader judge an object in hand, not to promote a purchase.
Corrections
Errors are corrected in place once documented, and serious corrections are answered by mail through the contact page. The desk’s composition and method are described on the about page, the site’s legal frame on the legal notice page, and the handling of outside contributions on the sponsored content page.